Package deals
Some folks see monopolies that aren’t really there, argues Megan McArdle:
Apple has a monopoly over [iTunes, iPhone, iPod] only in the trivial sense that P&G has a monopoly over Charmin, and I have a monopoly over the chocolate cake I baked last night. Neither “monopoly” is withholding a critical good from people, or forcing them to pay an extortionate price for same. If you don’t want to buy your music from iTunes, you can trot right over and buy MP3s from Amazon. And they’ll play just as well on a Zune.
But, you say, you’d like to buy music from iTunes and play it on a Zune? Well, I’d like to get takeout from Ray’s Pizza and enjoy it in the stunning ambience of Cafe des Artistes. If the waiter refuses to let me do so, is that a monopoly?
It is no trick to convert iTunes’ current de-DRMed inventory to MP3 files, which will play on a Zune or on my MP3 Walkman or any number of other players — for that matter, current Zunes will play Apple’s unprotected AAC files (.m4a extension) without conversion — but there’s no good reason why Apple should be forced to provide, say, an open API for every other machine on the planet so long as it remains no trick. And come to think of it, you don’t see anyone demanding WMA support in iTunes.
Meanwhile, my next pizza will likely be consumed in the stunning ambience of my kitchen.
Closet Atheist »
18 July 2009 · 3:32 am
… for much the same reason as you don’t see anyone demanding a Velvet Elvis at the Omniplex.
If you’re not savvy enough to convert the un-DRMed .m4a to .mp3, you don’t DESERVE an API to do it for you.